Peregrine and bald eagle expected to be delisted
By GREG STAHL
Express Staff Writer
Two endangered raptors found in the Big Wood and Salmon river basins
and on the brink of extinction in the early 1970s have made remarkable comebacks.
Both the peregrine falcon and bald eagle could soon be taken off the
federal endangered species list.
On Friday, Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt announced that the U.S.
Department of Fish and Wildlife would take the peregrine falcon off the list. Earlier this
summer, Fish and Wildlife officials made a similar announcement about the bald eagle.
However, neither bird has actually come off the list yet, Sawtooth
National Forest wildlife biologist Robin Garwood said.
Babbitt cited the success of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and
cooperation between the public and private sectors for the peregrine’s successful
recovery, according to the Associated Press.
"This wonderful story says a lot about the Endangered Species
Act," Babbitt said at The Peregrine Fund’s World Center for Birds of Prey near
Boise. "It is a commitment by the American people and a visionary law that says we
recognize our obligation to God’s creation."
Both birds’ declines are largely attributed to the presence of DDT
and other pesticides in the food chain. They were placed on the ESA’s Endangered list
in 1973. There were only 500 breeding pairs of bald eagles and 39 of peregrines in the
continental United States at the time.
DDT and other pesticide use has since been banned, and, according to
Garwood, that is one of the most significant factors that led to the birds’ recovery.
Now, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service estimates that more than 1,650
peregrine and more than 5,000 bald eagle breeding pairs inhabit North America.
Benjamin Franklin wanted the United States’ avian mascot to be the
wild turkey, but his hopes were crushed by a public that wanted a national bird that was
beautiful and powerful.
The bald eagle was nearly lost two centuries after the country’s
founding fathers selected it for its fierce and powerful qualities in 1782.
There are no bald eagle nesting sites in the Big Wood and Salmon river
basins, Garwood said, but the elegant birds of prey do winter along the shores of both
rivers.
The Big Wood River hosts 10 to 20 bald eagles each winter, Garwood
said. Along the Salmon River, around 10 bald eagles generally winter above Stanley, she
said, and quite a few more winter downstream.
Garwood said it is difficult to say where the local wintering eagles go
to nest because they travel in all directions, often for long distances.
"They go where there’s a concentration of food," she
said.
The bald eagle is essentially a sea eagle that commonly makes its home
inland, along rivers and large lakes. They commonly nest in lone trees, often on islands
in rivers. The peregrine falcon—also called the duck hawk—is the world’s
fastest bird, diving at up to 200 miles per hour to strike ducks or other water birds.
Peregrines kill their prey by striking, a 200-mile-per-hour punch by clenched-talon fists.
Peregrines inhabit rocky open country near water where birds are
plentiful and nest high on cliffs.
Garwood said there are two known peregrine nesting sites locally, both
in the Sawtooth Wilderness Area.
The peregrine falcon once bred from Hudson Bay to the southern and
western United States. It is now extinct east of the Mississippi River, but is again
beginning to maintain healthy and sustainable populations in the West.
The falcon is only the sixth U.S. species to recover enough to be
removed from the endangered species list, which currently includes roughly 1,200 plants
and animals in the United States.
